Childhood Obesity: Determinants, Strategies, and Healthcare Interventions

Running head: CHILDHOOD OBESITY
CHILDHOOD OBESITY
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CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Britain is starting to overtake America in the rates of obesity with the latest figure
showing that more children in the nation of England are classes as overweight at the age of 11 in
consideration to that of the United States. The proportion of the children of US aged 9 to 11 who
are found to be obese is 18.5% whereas the figure of the children in their final years of the
primary school in England is at the record of 20% (CDC 2017). As per the reports of the BBC,
Public Health England figures for England and Wales has stated that 60% of the children in the
nation who are in their last year of the primary school are classified as “severely obese” in
comparison to their first year (BBC.com 2018). Childhood obesity is found to be associated with
huge number of physiological consequences which are diabetes as well as atherosclerosis, high
blood pressure, asthma, liver disorders, allergies, metabolic syndromes, sleep apnoea and many
others. Moreover, many psychological symptoms also remain intricately associated with the
childhood obesity. These are depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, peer
victimization, bullying and many others (Sahoo et al. 2015). Therefore, it is extremely important
for healthcare professionals to prevent the children from developing childhood obesity in order
to ensure the, better quality lives. Therefore, this assignment will cover identification of the
determinants of health and develop knowledge about the strategies undertaken on national
priorities. It would also explain the different healthcare interventions that professionals can take
in order to prevent the prevalence of childhood obesity in the nation.
Determinants of health are the various aspects of the living conditions which determine
the health and wellbeing of an individual. A number of determinants of health are found to be
intricately associated with childhood obesity. One of them is the poor level of health education
among the parents and relatives as well as poor health literacy. In such situations, parents do not
remain aware of the appropriate healthy and nutritious foods that need to be given and the

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unhealthy calorie dense foods that need to be avoided for the children (Casey et al. 2014). They
also have poor food habits which are learnt by children through observational learning approach.
Therefore, lower health literacy and lack of proper knowledge among the parents acts as one the
social determinants of health that is contributing to childhood obesity among the children of the
nation. Another important social determinant of health is the lack of income and unemployment
rates in the poor socioeconomic status of the people. Such people are seen to buy takeaway and
fast foods which are cheap but are calorie dense (Bartley 2016). They cannot afford the organic
foods which are costly but nutritious and hence, the children are not able to intake as much fibres
required for being healthy and fit. Therefore, the social determinant of health which is
unemployment and lack of income among the socioeconomic people is another social
determinant of health (Smith, Bambra and Hill 2016). Another important determinant of health is
the obesogenic environment. In the present day, social media marketing, advertisements
provided by the fast food industries on chip, burgers as well as sweetened beverages on
television, radio, social media and others keep the children hooked to unhealthy food practices
(Liu et al. 2015). Moreover recent trends of the use of smart phones and indoor comport games
have resulted children to lead sedentary lifestyles. Hence, such obesogenic environment needs to
be modified to reduce the rate of childhood obesity among the children.
A range of population-wide strategies and initiatives have been formulated by the WHO
with the aim of effective management of childhood obesity rates. These policies place due
emphasis on taking necessary measures for the marketing of non-alcoholic beverages and foods
that are meant for children (resolution WHA63.14) (WHO 2012). In addition, nutrition labelling
has also been identified imperative for encouraging healthy diets among the target population, by
providing exhaustive information on the amount of carbohydrates, saturated fats, sugars, total